A day after Hadashot TV news reported that Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit has decided to indict the prime minister on bribery charges in Case 4000 – involving Israel's telecom giant Bezeq – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening released a video in which he says Mendelblit was pressured into issuing the indictment.
The video was part of the new election campaign strategy Netanyahu intends to employ in the coming weeks, as first reported by Israel Hayom, which will specifically focus on the corruption investigations involving him in an attempt to downplay their significance.
The video contains footage of demonstrations outside the attorney general's home in Petah Tikva, and protesters chasing after him with signs that read: "The Left and media have been hounding the attorney general for three years to issue an indictment at all costs. At the supermarket, in the street, at synagogue. Will they succeed?"
Also this weekend, a large billboard was unveiled that bears the images of journalists Ben Caspit, Amnon Abromovich, Guy Peleg and Raviv Druker, with a headline saying: "They won't decide." The billboard was the work of Likud party officials.
The Left, as expected, lambasted the prime minister for the video.
"The video is obvious incitement. Netanyahu is putting Mendelblit in danger. In a normal country, a prime minister doesn't attack his attorney general," said Labor Chairman Avi Gabbay.
Opposition Leader MK Shelly Yachimovich (Labor) called the video "Calculated incitement, which beyond the fact that it endangers renowned journalists, in a manner reminiscent of regimes whose democracy has dimmed – its purpose is to terrorize the attorney general."
On the Right, meanwhile, Netanyahu's video received support.
"What's inciting about this video? The prime minister is describing facts – and it's a fact that there's been a public campaign by the Left and parts of the media to pressure the attorney general to lean toward an indictment. And if he doesn't, the implication is that the attorney general is wrong, that he himself is corrupt," Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said.
'No cause for recusal'
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Friday also addressed the investigations involving the prime minister, saying that Netanyahu did not have to recuse himself if indicted.
"It would be up to him alone, because only he knows what's been happening with his questioning [by police] and what the evidence is. According to the law, he doesn't have to step down," Edelstein said.
